Meeting Abstract
While general ecological preferences have been observed for Opiliones (harvestmen or daddy longlegs), few studies have been conducted on the microhabitat preferences of the species from the Midwestern United States. In our study, we aimed to determine the microhabitat preferences of Minnesota harvestmen in terms of vegetation cover, canopy cover, plant species, and distance to the nearest tree. Over two weeks in July 2016, we surveyed an oak forest habitat in Inver Grove Heights, MN, gathering data in each of 182 quadrats about the number of harvestmen found, species identity, distance to the nearest tree, and the diameter at breast height of that tree. We found seven different species in our survey: Leiobunum aldrichi, L. calcar, L. politum, L. ventricosum, L. vitattum, Odiellus pictus, and Odiellus sp. The data we collected were compared with data on the vegetational composition of each quadrat. We found a positive and significant relationship between abundance of a group of three species (Leiobunum ventricosum, L. vitattum, and L. calcar) and total plant species richness (excluding ferns), total plant cover, and total common buckthorn cover. A positive and significant relationship was also found between abundance of Odiellus species and canopy cover, likely reflective of their observed preference for leaf litter habitats. The low R2 values indicate that though significant relationships do exist there may be many components that go into microhabitat preferences that have not yet been observed, such as humidity or temperature, and/or that these animals are microhabitat generalists.
